Thought Leadership

The Los Angeles River, just east of Fourth St., near the Arts District downtown

I took this photo in L.A. last week from the Fourth St. viaduct, one of a number of bridges built in the 1920s. You can't see it in this photo, but there was a single duck paddling around and taking a bath. The concrete is oversized to handle the flash floods that sometimes occur; otherwise there is just a trickle running down the center channel. On the immediate right side is the main rail line, and on the left side the repair and sorting yards for the Metro, LA's light rail system. There are now plans to re-green the river, starting all the way up in the San Fernando Valley, dozens of miles away, and running down to its mouth on the ocean. (an outfall?). These huge concrete pieces of "infrastructure" were once neglected single-purpose places, but with younger people taking back the city and living in places like the Arts District, a warehouse district to the left, they are gradually retaking these places, turning them back, over time, into places for people and nature. For now, though, one duck will have to suffice.